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A rich and intensely intimate collection of new poems—two full sections of them—as well as Blanco’s picks from his previous volumes
“For breathing life into the identity and idea of America. An award-winning poet and author, professor and public speaker, and son of Cuban immigrants, Richard Blanco’s powerful storytelling challenges the boundaries of culture, gender, and class while celebrating the promise of our nation’s highest ideals.”
— Citation presented to Richard Blanco on receiving the National Humanities Medal at the White House
In this collection of over 100 poems, Richard Blanco has carefully selected poems from his previous volumes and bookended them with new poems that address both the turbulence of our times and the internal struggles he grapples with as a gay Latino man in a culture that can be cruel and unwelcoming to anyone who is “other.”
The poems range in subject and setting, but are all characterized by his keen eye and deep sensibility, without unnecessary pretense or complexity. This volume is a gift to Blanco’s fans but even more to those who have yet to discover that they can fall in love with poetry.
Richard Blanco has been justly celebrated for his poetic gifts and his command of the many forms poetry can take, from the finely structured to the spoken word and prose poem formats. His previous volumes evinced his growing command of the craft and his devotion to making poetry accessible to all readers and listeners.
